


Homeward Bound

by Username_Error404



Category: Star Trek, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crossover, Family Dynamics, First fic (screams), Gen, Some Humor, That's Not How The Force Works, This sounds dark, Torture, Violence, it's really not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-10-25 10:15:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17723270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Username_Error404/pseuds/Username_Error404
Summary: Fleeing with wounded general in tow, Rex and Cody have to find their way to a safe-haven. Whether they can trust this Enterprise crew is still up for debate.





	1. Captain "There's no place like home" Rex

**Author's Note:**

> So um, you may have noticed this is my first fic. Ever. As in, I've never written for anything besides a school project. This also means it's my first time on ao3. So, bear with me? Please give it a shot, constructive criticism would be much appreciated. To the five people who might open this: kudos give me life! 
> 
> Finally, this fic was heavily inspired by a cool Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack compilation (I know, weird right? PoC inspires trek wars mash up). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idzW8qSsjRI (Will edit for better link later-as soon as I figure it out). I don't really recommend you listen as you read, because it's all out of order so it's not designed for that sorta thing. Your choice though!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uh, what's a chapter summary?
> 
> Oh! This! This is a chapter summary.
> 
> Rex and Cody are moored in the middle of space- floating with no engine power, there's no way to get an injured General to a medcenter.

“Protect the General at all costs.” Cody commanded grimly. Outside the ship’s window, the incoming shuttle drew steadily closer.

“At all costs.” repeated Rex. He wasn’t shiny enough to turn around and look at where General Kenobi lay in the cockpit, but it was a close thing. The edge of the doorway kept the wounded Jedi out of sight anyways, but Rex couldn’t shake the worry that stuck to him like tar, even though they’d already done all they could to help him. He remained stubbornly unconscious and his breathing was slow and laborious. To make matters worse, he was feverishly pale and clammy, in stark contrast to his auburn hair and the dried blood on his skin. Even if his wounds didn't get him, the infection would. The chronometer was ticking, and there wasn’t any way in all the Sith hells to get to a medcenter, not when the three of them were floating gently through the darkness on the border of wild space, with limited power and engines destroyed. 

Their small craft didn’t contain any medical supplies beyond a basic first aid kit. In fact, it was designed for only one or two people. There were two cramped bedrooms near the door to the craft, an even more cramped fresher, and a circular living room. It also doubled up as a hallway from the main entrance to the cockpit, with the other rooms radiating out like spokes on a wheel. Safe to say, there wasn’t really anything they could do with their rudimentary cot setup.

Rex deliberately didn’t think about what would happen if their desperate gamble to save Kenobi didn’t work. Worrying wouldn’t start their engines back up or conjure up a med droid. Worrying about what-ifs could get a brother killed faster in battle than a blaster bolt would.

Rex shook his head. According to plan, he and Cody had both set up cover in the main circular room. Rex had flipped a sturdy looking table onto it's side in the back of the room, off to the side of the cockpit’s entrance. Cody had done the same thing, but their strategy required his table to be closer to the entrance door. The cockpit’s narrow entrance would have been better as a choke point, but they wanted General Kenobi safe and out of sight. There was no way to conceal that they were clones, but Rex and Cody desperately hoped that keeping him in the background, combined with the dirt and blood on his face, would stop any recognition. 

The sentients arriving on a small shuttle from the larger, white saucer shaped vessel would doubtless turn them in for the large bounties on their heads. The Separatists would happily turn over a small moon’s worth of fortune to get their hands on a Jedi. Rex and Cody only had one shot at this. The gambit was simple, but desperate, and there were too many things that could go wrong. The sentients would doubtless know they were clone troopers; even if they took off their buckets, their faces were distinctive and their armor even more so. A search for clothes turned up empty, so changing was out as well. They would have to skip directly to what his Jedi liked to call “aggressive negotiations”. As soon as the boarding party walked through the door, Rex would stick his upper half above cover, blasters at the ready. Cody would take advantage of the sudden distraction to dart in, grab an unlucky hostage, and drag them back to Rex’s position. If everything worked like it was supposed to (and it never did) then in the blink of an eye, Cody would have his gun against the leader of the party, Rex would have his twin pistols trained on their friends, and they could negotiate the safe return of the captive in exchange for medical supplies and a fast ship.

There was a considerable distance between their small drifter and the large mother ship, but the investigative craft was closing at a fast pace. That was a bad sign. It was never good when the enemy had good quality equipment. Now the swiftly moving ship was about a minute out, and he and Cody settled further into their positions.

Cody drummed his fingers over his loosely held gun, a rookie tic that only surfaced when he was extremely stressed or distraught. Rex suspected that it was both, and resolved to sit on his older brother until he slept for at least twelve hours. 

With about thirty seconds to go they were tensely watching the spacecraft’s boarding door.

Around ten seconds to go they were completely out of sight, in their places.

Five seconds passed with bated breath.

A few moments around the estimated deadline, a slight shudder ran through the ship. The accompanying high-pitched grinding and squealing sound signified that the craft attempting to dock with theirs was having trouble connecting. Then the loud, teeth-gritting noise shuddered to a halt.

With a final compulsive glance at the cockpit, Rex grimaced and readied his pistols. Their guests had arrived.


	2. Anakin, Get Some Help

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I saw how many people clicked on the link, and that twenty people thought it good enough to chuck a kudos at it, and just about flipped myself over the nearest moon. 
> 
> Again, it'll be rough, and when you guys see a flaw could you point it out? That'd be fantastic! Thanks again!

A week beforehand...

Today marked a week since General Kenobi's disappearance.

General Skywalker had not been doing well. Rex and the Senator had done their best to keep him on an even keel, but what little sleep and food they could force in him only did so much. He spent his days pouring over datapads of intel from less than reputable sources, and his nights chasing down suspects through the lowest levels of Coruscant. In short, Rex was grateful that the High Council had granted them leave. Generals couldn’t help the war effort if they burnt themselves out, and it seemed the Council knew that. The General had an intense, one track mind, and the people he’d forgotten about, had forgotten that they could _help_ him, were left trying to run damage control. It gave Rex the impression of attaching a parachute to a crashing, burning, star destroyer. Futile and laughable, but they had to try. 

The start of this whole mess was when Cody was forced to break the news of what should have been a minor skirmish to him and General Skywalker. Past the intial gut punch, Rex thought it had been particularly cruel that his affected vod be the one to make Skywalker turn as white as Kamino’s walls. At the same time, it was only right that Cody be the one. Both his Generals (and they were both his, he and Cody had agreed to share babysitting duties over some truly questionable swill a long time ago) had gone missing during the war, but as a day turned to two, then three, then a week, Skywalker had gone from stunned, to determined, to angry, then back to that same frantic drive to find his former Master. Rex had a bad feeling that his general’s volatile and mercurial moods would violently destabilize if their search was unsuccessful.

——————————————————————

The end of the first week saw Rex waiting outside the doors to the council chamber. He’d seen his General and Cody into the council meeting half an hour ago, and was now sticking around for when the meeting concluded. 

General Skywalker had looked like he'd spent the last week letting an orbital bombardment use him as target practice and was unsuccessfully trying to hide it. His matted mess of hair, creased tunics, and slightly manic eyes did nothing to discourage the idea. In fact, Rex was fairly sure that the shadows under his eyes were deep enough to hide a recon squad in. Cody hadn’t looked much better, but at least his armor was in order. Still, Rex strongly suspected that if it wasn't against regulation in the Temple, Cody would be hiding his haggard face under his bucket. To be fair, Rex would like to conceal what he was sure was his disheveled, poor excuse for a clone trooper appearance. On the other hand, his ability to give a kriff was directly proportional to the amount of sleep he'd gotten over the last week. Safe to say, it was draining rapidly.

The Council was about to declare General Kenobi KIA; standard operating procedure for the GAR when someone went missing for over a week. General Kenobi being declared KIA, however, meant that they would no longer be cleared to continue the search. Rex and Cody knew that Skywalker would simply continue searching, and Force knew that they, the 212th, and the 501st would help. Even though desertion in wartime was considered treasonous, and there was a severe punishment for two legions going AWOL. So, to make sure Skywalker didn’t make this kriffin’ hard week even harder, he and Cody had convinced him to ask the Council for an extension. It’d make sense to extend the search period for a valuable High General. Holding the meeting was only a formality. Yes. Of course. Absolutely. There was no possible reason for it to be denied.

Rex restlessly drummed his fingers on his leg and paced the hallway outside. He was wound tighter than a spring, even with an almost guaranteed acceptance of the request (in fact, it _was_ guaranteed. Of course). The calm and reflective atmosphere of the temple didn’t help his nerves. He was a soldier first and foremost, and a happy barracks was as loud as a clanker skirmish. The temple made him uneasy, even without the present circumstances. The quiet halls with the occasional group of brown robed Jedi felt more like an ambush setup than “a peaceful environment of contemplation”. The home of the Jedi excluded such an aura of quiet that Rex felt he was disturbing it just by thinking too loudly. Which, considering the Jedi, was probably true.

He'd been briefly distracted by a welcome break from the quiet monotony in the form of an exuberant quintet of Jedi shinies, being herded by a Zygerian master. His harried and exasperated expression did nothing to conceal the fondness on his face as he tried to corral his charges. Rex smirked and crossed his arms. Of all the things to stay the same in wartime, this was one of the most important.

When he looked up, Skywalker and Cody were striding towards him, the council doors swishing closed behind them. Rex only needed to look at them to know it had gone well. The slight lightening of Skywalker’s step and the relief present in Cody’s shoulders told him the deadline had been extended before Skywalker even opened his mouth.

For anyone else, the request would have been denied. But Kenobi was (and was still) a High General, in charge of the Third Systems Army and the Open Circle Armada, as well as a member of the Jedi High Council. Rex had heard too many stories from Cody about finding the Jedi Master slumped over a pile of datapads late at night or subsisting on solely highly-caffeinated tea to not know that he ran himself ragged doing much more unofficially. Between all of that, General Kenobi oversaw roughly half of the Grand Army of the Republic, and said army was now running around like a Nexu with its head cut off trying to pick up the suddenly dropped slack. They needed General Kenobi back, and now. The man was too valuable to lose.

Rex tried not to think of the other, darker reason. A General with that much power knew a lot of information. Troop sizes and movements. Weapon specs. Research projects. Republic secrets. It was a deadly, high-stakes game of seek-and-find. The Republic would do anything to find the General. The Separatists would do anything to find out what the General knew.


	3. The Rattatak Rush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mission to rescue General Kenobi is launched. 
> 
> Rex has a bad feeling about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, posting chapters for me basically involves saying, "Oh, this looks fine! I'll post it."
> 
> Two days later: *screams*
> 
> Comments would be appreciated! I know my writing style is a bit wack, and comments about what I could improve on would be fantastic.

Two days after the council meeting, an anonymous tip came in. By the time the lead had been processed by Clone Intelligence, deemed worth looking into, verified as accurate, and passed on to High Command, another three days had passed. The sixth day of the week, the 501st and orphaned 212th were scrambled aboard the _Resolute_ and the _Negotiator_ and told to prep for a planet-side invasion as they flew.

Rex was torn between relief and the uneasy feeling that something wasn't going to go the way they wanted it to. It could be the lack of proper planning and rushed tactics, but he didn’t think he'd be able to receive word of General Kenobi's location and sit on his shebs. Besides, Skywalker would hare off without them, and Kenobi would never forgive them for letting his former padawan get captured. 

Cody, at least, would remember to take Rex with him.

Aboard the *Resolute*, Rex strode purposefully through the ordered chaos of the ship towards the south hangar. The abrupt "make it up as you go along" orders meant that he was speed reading through a datapad as he walked, mentally cursing the lack of time. Although the more time they took, the more time the General was in Separatist hands... he huffed, shook his head, and refocused on the mission orders.

The lead pointed towards a brown, mountainous, dust-ball of a planet located at the very edge of the outer rim. It was decidedly in Separatist space, but also so far out that it hadn't become consequential in any dispute. The tricky part was that the planet was so isolated that any approach by an unknown vessel would have no chance at remaining undetected. A stealth-op to gain intel or a quick and quiet retrieval was out of the question.

The best intel they could gain on Rattatak without being detected involved high powered surveillance scanners set about half a parsec away from the planet. The images were grainy and vague, but Clone Intelligence was able to identify a circular fortress as the most suspect. Slicing into signals coming to and from the planet further confirmed that the large stone stronghold was their best shot. Since stealth was out of the question, the invasion plan relied on the element of surprise, as the Resolute, the Negotiator, and the Victory* would make a long-range hyperspace jump as close to the planet as physically possible. The three star destroyers would leave hyperspace practically on top of the planet’s atmosphere before launching the ground force, hopefully giving the enemy no time to prepare. 

Once there, all starfighters and troop transports would launch, with only the minimum fighter squadrons remaining as a protection detail. Here was the shocking part of the plan: Skywalker was not to lead the rescue team. His and Commander Tano’s role upon landing was to be a big, flashy distraction at the front, leading a very large and very obvious assault team to storm the front doors of the castle. In the meantime, Cody and Rex were to each take a squad and slip in near the rear, one on either side of the concentric castle. They’d work their way inwards in a pincer movement until they found the General. At that time, the forward team should have pierced through the castle defenses in a straight line and split the castle in two. The two squads with General Kenobi would reconvene at the point of the assault force, where they would travel down the line until they reached friendly ground outside of the castle. The remaining troops would fold as they passed, falling in behind them to guard their backs.

It was, Rex admitted, a good plan. He was shocked that Skywalker wasn’t racing in pell-mell to find his former mentor, but on reflection, it made sense. Three flashy lightsabers and two pissed off Jedi made for one hell of a distraction. In addition, Skywalker was well known for being rash, especially where Kenobi was concerned. It would be expected of him to be storming the detention level. With any luck, the enemy would be too busy with the light show to notice two squads of clones amidst the chaos. It was the best plan to ensure Kenobi got out, even though Skywalker would have to stay behind and delegate. Rex had to thank whoever managed a force-blessed miracle and rubbed some basic tactics off on him.

——————————————————————

Rex was in the hanger doing a final check on equipment when Skywalker walked in, presumably to do the same thing. Rex came to attention, which Skywalker acknowledged with an absentminded “at ease” while scrolling through an inventory datapad. 

“We’re all ready to go here, Sir.”

Skywalker hummed distractedly.

“...would you like to perform an additional check?” tried Rex.

Skywalker sighed and looked up from his datapad. “No, it’s fine. I trust you and your men.” He hesitated for a second, face shadowed while his fingers rapidly drummed on the datapad. He stopped tapping abruptly and looked up, locking eyes with Rex. His gaze was haggard and serious in a way that didn’t fit his boyish face. When this kriffing mess was over, Rex decided he'd enlist the 501st and start the biggest prank war the GAR had ever seen. Skywalker frowned, and the scar along his eye creased as he said, “I’m also trusting you and Cody,” and Rex knew he wasn’t talking about the equipment check. “I can’t be there Rex. I can’t be the one to help him. You and Cody will have to do that.”

“Bring him home, Rex. Bring him home safe.”

and he walked out.

Weeks later, Rex would wonder how accurate Skywalker knew those words would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, I tried to get on Omegle to tell people to have a nice day, but the first five chats were all porn bots and then I had to go to bed :/.
> 
> So, I'll tell you guys!
> 
> Regardless of what you thought of this chapter, I hope you have a nice day!


	4. Over and Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cody and Rex reach General Kenobi. Getting him out will be the harder part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this is late! This chapter is really long, so hopefully it makes up for it. (It more than doubles the word count)
> 
> I also write mostly on mobile, so there might be some errors.

The first stage of the raid started much more explosively then Rex was expecting. In hindsight, he should've realized that General Skywalker and Commander Tano didn't consider it a "real" distraction unless "demolitions experts" were involved.

He, Fives, Echo, Kix, and a few other men snuck into the base under the cover of ground-shaking booms. As they made their way through the hallways, the occasional dull roar would shake dust loose from the stone walls. 

Rex peered around the corner, then thanked the force, the stars, and whatever deity looked after trouble magnet generals that the schematics the slicers had stolen were accurate. They'd made it to the detention level. Here, the building transitioned from compact rock to smooth and clinical durasteel. The trapezoidal doors that were positioned evenly throughout the hall were similar to the few Seppie brigs he’d seen.

He gave a quick hand signal and took point, cautiously stepping around the corner and into the empty grey corridor. It was wide- about six feet, and at about eighty feet long with doors spaced evenly throughout it would take a while to search. The immediate coast clear, he took up guard just after the first cell door. Echo joined him on his right while Fives did a brief inspection of the interface. His passing assessment done, Fives stepped back and palmed the door release. Rex heard a quick, electronic whirr behind him as the cell door unlatched and slid upwards. 

“Empty, sir.” 

Rex acknowledged with a nod, not expecting to find the General in the first cell they came across. Their luck just wasn’t that good.

They crossed the hallway and copied the tactic with the adjacent door, which Echo declared “Clear!”

The next set of doors they covered produced the same results. Rex reminded himself that there had to be about twenty doors in the level. They’d only gone through four. 

It didn’t do much to settle his nerves.

At the opposite end of the hall, sudden movement made Rex’s head snap up. After a brief pause, a white form in 212th orange cautiously stepped out from behind the distant corner and gave him a wave. Cody and the rest of his squad filed in as Rex relaxed and signed "Nothing yet. You’re late."

Cody signed "Ran into some clankers, took them out quietly", before he turned and motioned for Waxer to open the nearest cell while Boil stood guard. 

Rex turned to do the same when he noticed a difference in the next set of doors. The doors themselves looked to be more reinforced, although the small control panel was the same. In addition, the cell entrances on the same wall were spaced further apart from each other, almost like the rooms themselves were... bigger. Rex had a bad feeling about this.

Fives released the door locks before stepping back, and Rex gripped his twin pistols tighter as the trapezoidal door slid upwards. His first impression was that the dim gun metal gray room, lit only by the outside hallway, contained a table that was more or less a slab of silver metal. His second impression was that there was a body strapped to that table, too injured to be alive. 

Rex eased up with a guilty sigh of relief when he realized the poor being on the table was female. There was no way the Rattataki clothed in native garb- a local who offended someone important, Rex presumed- was alive, but Rex called Kix over just in case. He wasn't leaving anyone behind, not to the Separatist's fictitious  
mercy. 

A moment later, a quiet “Sir” from Echo caught his attention. The clone was across the hall and facing into a newly opened cell, the twin to the interrogation room Rex was in. His grave demeanor was raising all of Rex’s warning sirens, and Rex immediately turned and strode out of the first interrogation room. Crossing the hall and stopping next to Echo, Rex opened his mouth, then froze.

Peering into the ill-lit cell, he could make out an identical table bearing another motionless body. A dirty shock of ginger hair was the only color in the otherwise drab room. 

He swore colorfully, relieved and horrified in equal measure. Unfreezing, he rushed in to stand beside the table, yanking off a black glove to feel for breath. He held his bare hand over Kenobi’s bloody mouth for a single, frozen moment. 

After a beat of silence, a tiny puff of air brushed against his skin. 

He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, took a moment to thank the stars that Skywalker wouldn’t lose his Master, and turned to Echo, waiting tensely in the doorway. 

“He’s alive. Get Cody over here,” Echo nodded and ran out into the cell block as Rex pulled off his bucket and yelled, “Kix! Get over here! We found him."

An instant later, Kix dashed over to hover beside him, uttering one or two choice words. Even Rex’s non-medical eye knew how bad the situation was. 

The unconscious man’s wrists were by his sides, metal cuffs welded to the table keeping the Jedi’s arms and legs restrained. A brutal force suppression collar locked around his neck completed the callous arrangement.

His dirty, ripped tunics didn’t do much to conceal his wounds. There were cuts of varying depths in different places, but by far the most concerning was the deep gash in his side. It’d been crudely wrapped in a stop-gap manner by his captors, and the filthy bandage was sluggishly seeping blood. His fingers were clearly broken, mangled, but hopefully not permanently. Under the tatters, one of his legs was swollen and mottled with bruises, and Rex thought that it might be in the same state. 

Kix shifted and carefully ran his fingers over Kenobi’s side, gently pulling away the bandage. Rex winced at the nasty, barely healed, laceration. Tacky, congealing, blood mixed with pus ran from the torn edges of the wound, which were inflamed and angry. It was difficult to say how long the infection had been festering, but it’d certainly take a lot more than a quick field patch to stave it off. Kix was scowling fiercely, but his hands were deft and gentle as he started to clean the site and replace the old dressings. 

Rex more than understood his glower. You couldn't have Skywalker without Kenobi, and the 501st were deployed with the 212th more often than not. Over the course of the war, he’d gotten to know the man well enough to appreciate his cool head in a firefight, quiet confidence, and dry wit. In another life, Rex would have been comfortable calling the man a good friend. 

So seeing the small bundle of bloody rags strapped to a table had him pushing down his own flare of protective rage. Cody, as the General’s second in command, confidante, minder, and trusted friend, would be even worse. Active combat, however, was not the best time for intense emotions, and they'd been trained to remain calm since the day they were decanted. Still, the boiling pit in his stomach told him he'd be wrecking the firing range as soon as this was over.

Abruptly, Cody darted into the room, stumbling for a brief second when he saw them, then yanking off his bucket and skidding to a stop on the other side of Kix. For a tense moment, Cody stared down at his injured Jedi, practically vibrating with fury. After a few seconds, he pinched his brow and inhaled deeply, forcibly reigning himself in until the only sign of his seething rage was the tight creases at the corners of his eyes. 

Kix had paused to let the commander compose himself, then gave a condensed report, detailing his patient's injuries. Cody listened, pulling out a pair of laser cutters he'd brought and starting to carefully cut off the manacles. The first band of steel dropped away, and Cody interrupted to curse viciously. Where the manacle had once been was a band of raw and bloodied flesh. The metal cuffs were abrasive, but not tight enough to do that on their own.

Obi-wan must have struggled violently and repeatedly, yanking until the bare skin broke.

Looking at Cody’s murderous eyes, Rex was half convinced that the man would pull a Wolffe and gnaw off someone’s arm. 

Seeking a distraction, Rex cast about looking for... there. Conveniently, the missing lightsaber, utility belt, overtunic, and tabards were pillowed on a metal cart, overlooked in a dark corner. 

He walked forward a couple steps and grabbed the clothes off the table, rolling them into a tight cylinder before wrapping the utility belt around the whole thing. Clipping the lightsaber onto the belt, he gave it an experimental tug, and it held firm. Satisfied that it was secured and still easily accessible, he tucked the bundle under his arm and returned to a free spot near the table. 

Kenobi had been unbound, the remaining cuffs precisely removed, and Rex watched as Cody carefully brought the laser cutters up to the collar, scoring two precise lines vertically up on either side of the metal band. 

Cody reached out and pulled off the collar, tossing it to the ground with the other shackles. Inhibitor removed, the General Kenobi's breathing deepened and evened out, and Rex thought he could see a tinge of color return to formerly pale cheeks.

Work done, Kix peeled off his disposable gloves and looked at them both. “He’s as stable as I can make him, so he should be safe to move- but be careful.”

Nodding, Cody bent down and- gentle as he could- picked up the General. The movement stirred a weak groan, which was encouraging. It was the first sound they’d heard out of him. Rex clung to that small reassurance as he poked his head out into the hallway. The dual squads had formed into a semi-circle facing outwards, vigilant and keeping guard. 

“He’s alive, but not out of the woods yet. Split up and go check the cells, we’re not leaving any prisoners for the Seppies to have. Kix!” He yelled back into the cell, summoning the medic to stand beside him. “Go with them, treat anyone you come across. I’ll stay behind to keep a watch, come back here once you’re done and we’ll reform. Questions? None? Ok, move out.” With a clatter of armor, the men nodded and headed down the row of unchecked cells, opening the first set of doors.

Rex was waiting in the doorway, and the men were almost to the end, five sets of doors cleared, when Rex had the foolish hope that maybe, just this once, a complicating factor wouldn't show up-

The world _roared_ overhead, so loud it was a physical pressure against his ears, and an enormous shudder ripped through the area, sending dust shaking through newly formed cracks in the durasteel. Rex had an instant to think an explosion had gone off, then there was a horrific shriek of metal and the ceiling caved in.

The next few seconds were chaotic- Rex threw himself back into the cell, ears ringing so badly he couldn’t hear. Strong vibrations shook the floor, and when combined with the billowing clouds of dust, disoriented him so thoroughly he couldn’t tell which way was up. Effectively blinded, each lungful of air Rex took left him choking on dust.

After an eternity, the shaking gradually subsided. When he was certain the area was stable- at least for now- he stiffly untucked from the ball he'd curled into and carefully sat up. Blinking the dust out of his eyes, he scrubbed a fist across his face to get the worst of the dirt off, before taking a few seconds to catalog his injuries- minor, only a couple shallow scrapes and some bruises. It looked like going back into the cell, combined with his armor, had protected him from the worst of the shrapnel. 

Brief self-check done, he turned into the cell, only to squint into the area that had gone from dimly lit to practically pitch black. _Cody?_ He called out, and discovered that his voice sounded tinny and distant, like he’d stuck wax in his ears and dunked his head in a training pool. Impatiently shaking his head, Rex tried again, but it came out only a little better than the first time. He huffed, frustrated. There wasn’t much he could do about his hearing, except hope it’d come back soon. Looked like he’d have to do this the hard way.

He shifted forward, only to pause when the movement revealed that he still had his bucket and Kenobi’s gear, one tightly clasped under each arm. Apparently he’d kept his arms locked around them once the shaking started. He hadn’t even noticed.

It certainly came in handy now, as Rex fished his dusty bucket (antennae still attached, go figure) out from under one arm and jammed it on his head. He turned on the HUD and, in the universal problem solving method, smacked it a few times until the blurry display cleared. Satisfied, he turned on the night vision and the room fuzzily illuminated itself. Mostly indistinct shapes cleared up a bit, but the monochrome shading made things harder to distinguish. Standing up, he brushed himself off and took a step forward- only to curse as he tripped over a bit of loose rubble. Praying that Cody's night vision was broken, he gingerly scooted around what he was pretty sure was the table. 

The room was empty. Where was- ah _shit_.

In the corner, what he had initially thought to be another pile of loose rubble was in fact two bodies, one thrown haphazardly over the other. He crossed the distance in two large steps, coming to kneel beside them. 

The top shape, Cody, stirred with what Rex, even deaf, could identify as a pained curse. Rex waited till his eyes blinked open and focused on him, then quickly signed “You/General OK?”. Cody’s brow furrowed in confusion, before his eyes widened in realization, and he rapidly shifted his weight off the man he'd been sheltering. Cody quickly examined him, running careful hands to check for injuries, then turned and opened his mouth, only to pause. He tried again, puzzled over the lack of sound, then shook his head, annoyed, and brought his hands up to sign.

It wasn’t as bad as Rex had initially thought. Cody had been carrying his charge when the blast landed, and had hurled them both into a corner, shielding the injured Jedi. His own scrapes were minor, and it didn't look like the General had been hit severely, but an explosion and subsequent cave-in could not be good for a man already weak from torture and starvation. They needed to move and contact the fleet, yesterday.

Rex signed a quick affirmative, then handed Cody his bucket from where it’d fallen beside him. Cody nodded, and Rex turned to the doorway, examining their way out. It wasn’t fully blocked, it looked like the bulk of the rubble had fallen to the right side of the doorway, where the men had started searching.

Kriff. The men. 

Rex had come through the collapse intact, but it appeared his banged up wrist comm wasn’t so lucky. A stab at the buttons with his gloved hand revealed that his initial suspicions were correct; the comm was well and truly karked. The ringing in his ears seemed to be dying down, but he still needed to explain the situation to Cody with a quick flurry of hand gestures. Cody acknowledged and told him he’d switch to text communication over his own fortunately intact comm. Now that Cody was doing what he could to raise their squads, Rex could focus on clearing a path without causing another collapse.

So far, the left side which Rex had come from seemed more promising than Cody’s route, which was well and thoroughly blocked. A few chunks of rubble walled off his view, but the chinks of flickering fluorescent light that came through gave Rex encouragement, and he carefully pushed against the topmost boulder until it gave and started to fall. The resounding thud was encouraging, even if it only meant his hearing was coming back. 

Stretching up, Rex leaned on the rough sill of the new opening and looked through. The hallway beyond was completely different from when he had last seen it. The once clinical and barren space was now dotted with chunks of the upper castle walls, speared through with twisted rebar. The whole scene was covered in dust, and illuminated only in flickers by the one working lightbulb.

With a few more well placed shoves, and a nerve-wracking rain of dust and pebbles, Rex managed to dig a path out of the side of the rubble pile. Flicking his night vision off and his helmet beams on- the intermittent flares of light would wreak havoc on low light vision- Rex stepped into the hallway turned disaster area.

The path to the exit looked mostly clear, so Rex picked his way through to the T-shaped intersection that ended the corridor. His squad had originally entered from the left, and Rex started to take a step in that direction when something sounded at the edges of his newly recovered hearing. Tilting his head to the side, he froze, then listened intently. 

From further down the left hallway, there came the distant echo of repetitive metallic thuds, repetitive marching of robotic feet. Too far away to be of immediate concern, but close enough to block their escape. Rex pulled a face at the familiar sound. So far, they'd been fortunate enough not to run into too many clankers, but it seemed their luck had just run out. This complicated matters. Not only had their extraction plan A- to move towards the middle and rendezvous- been blocked by rubble, now it looked like extraction plan B was out as well. 

That would leave the right exit as their only way out. From what he could recall of the schematics, the newly dubbed extraction plan C would lead to another, bigger, hallway, but not before meeting an ascending staircase. The bigger hallway would increase their chance of meeting the forward assault team, but it’d be crawling with droids, and they had a better than optimal chance of getting shot. Cody would be slowed down carrying the General, and even if Rex dropped the gear bundle, he couldn’t defend them all from a horde of clankers. No, they’d have to take their chances with the stairs. 

The stairs themselves were small in comparison- they weren’t a main entrance or exit. From what Rex could recall, they led to a small landing pad, probably a personal one rather than a larger, more public one like the main hanger. With any luck, it'd be too small to have regular patrols and there'd be two or three ships still there, personal craft that were small but fast and nimble, meant for visiting other systems. That was if they didn’t encounter droids on the way up. 

That was a lot of chance to trust their lives to, but Rex didn't see any other alternatives. 

———————

He returned to the wrecked room, now partially lit by the unblocked entrance, and skirted the broken table to see Cody kneeling next to the still unconscious General.

“How’s the hearing, Commander?”

“Functional.” said Cody briskly and stood up, "I got through to our squads, no casualties but a couple wounded. They can't get back through the rock wall. Tell me you found a way out."

Rex quickly relayed the problem, followed by his extraction plan C, and was promptly met by a raised eyebrow and a highly dubious expression. 

Rex was a bit offended. “What? What’s wrong with it?”

“Let me get this clear." said Cody dryly, "We’re trapped, deep in enemy territory, and your best plan involves stealing a head Separatist's personal pleasure craft, from said Separatist's personal landing pad, and flying it above a massive space battle to rendezvous with the fleet, hopefully without getting blasted out of orbit by three star destroyers."

Well, when he put it like that. "If you have any suggestions, go ahead."

"I know, I know. Just face it, Rex.” and here he put a mock consoling hand on Rex’s non-pauldron shoulder, “Skywalker is rubbing off on you."

Rex opened his mouth to protest, he was _not_ as crazy as his general, thank you very much, then paused. It _was_ the sort of thing that Skywalker loved to pull. 

Shit. Cody was right.

He knew it too, and Rex was _this_ close to wiping the smug look off his face when a weak groan drifted from beside them and rapidly brought them back to the situation. 

Cody hastily turned and crouched down next to his general, gently shaking the man’s shoulder. “Sir? Sir! Can you hear me? Sir!”

One dirty eyelid cracked open, revealing a glimpse of exhausted gray-blue, before sliding shut again, it’s owner falling deeper into the depths of unconsciousness.

Cody sighed, rocking back on his haunches. “You ready to move, Captain?”

“Decanted ready, Commander.”

——————————-

The first part of the plan went off without a hitch. That was, of course, the first clue that something would go wrong. 

Underground, they weren't able to get a signal through to the star cruisers, leaving them with no way to inform the fleet of their plan or situation. No reinforcements also made it important that once they left their relative sanctuary they make quick time; the longer they stayed increased their chances at discovery.

Any plans to stealth went out the window when the heavy clomp of metal feet sounded closer than before, rapidly closing on the collapsed prison corridor. The droids would doubtless discover their prisoner missing, and there was only way left that any escapee could make.

With that in mind, Rex took point at a quick pace, his pistols up from where they’d been safely holstered at his side, but taking care to sweep corners with reg precision. It wouldn't do any good to escape from clankers only to run straight into them. Cody followed behind him, Jedi gear strapped to his back and the Jedi in question tucked safely in his arms, the commander keeping up thanks to Kaminoan endurance training. Rex would've teased Cody more about the bridal carry if it wasn't the only way to avoid aggravating his wounds. 

Approaching the door that should lead to the stairs, Rex checked on Cody behind him, then darted a short distance to plaster himself behind a buttress. He waited a second, then carefully edged around it until he was flat against the wall, next to the door. After a pause, he reached out with a pistol in one hand and bumped the interface. 

The door slid open, and Rex peered through, then quickly hurtled through the door to sweep upwards, taking the stairs at a quick jog. He fanned his DC-17s as he turned corners, covering each blind spot as it came up. They quickly passed one level, then two, then three before reaching the final landing. Rex slammed the interface to reveal a circular platform empty of droids, and they burst through into bright sunlight and a screaming sky battle.

The dizzying swoops of fighters, a dance shot through by multicolored lasers, twisted and turned about a klick from their location. It wouldn't be long before they were noticed. The private launch pad looked like it had once held three vessels, but now there were only two remaining. Of the two vessels, Rex bolted towards the one that looked like it had been fueled recently, a personal ship designed for a small crew and quick trips. 

The landing ramp was lowered and waiting, and Rex charged up to check the small, open area that comprised both the common room and the cockpit. After a quick initial clearance, he turned and beckoned Cody, before opening the door and checking the first bedroom. Inspection green, he swung across the area and cleared the second. By the time he'd finished with the fresher, Cody was in the cockpit with the general deposited in the chair behind him, hurriedly running the ship through it's pre-flight checks. Craft clear, Rex threw himself into the co-pilot's seat as Cody started the launch sequence. Hastily flipping through his knowledge of the spacecraft's model, Rex ran his fingers over the dash, flipping switches and punching in sequences before slamming the confirm button and yanking the mic towards himself. 

"Captain Rex to Resolute bridge, Captain Rex to bridge, *do you copy*?"

A brief crinkle of static, than a brother's voice crackled out of the speaker. "This is Resolute bridge, we read you."

"We've got the general, but we can't get past those clankers. We're gonna try and fly through, but the Seppie's will blow us out of the sky. We need a fighter escort, on this signal, now!"

"Acknowledged." There was a brief pause as the crewman relayed the information, then the bridge made contact again as the ship lifted gently off the ground. 

"Copy, we're sending several squads your way." Rex exhaled, than jumped up and crossed to the seat diagonally behind him, speedily buckling restraints across an oblivious occupant. He had a feeling this would be a bumpy ride.

General secured, he returned to his seat and fastened his own restraints as the rear shield alarm went off with a blare. Cody cursed fluently in Mando'a, and Rex was inclined to agree. They hadn't been expecting fire so soon, much less from that direction. 

His suspicions were only confirmed when he swiped his fingers across and pulled up the rear scanner. The droid contingent behind them had discovered their missing prisoner. The lovely sight of numerous battle droids and several supers for good measure only hardened Rex's resolve. They hadn't come so far only to fail now. They were _not_ going to lose the General again, not in any way, shape, and or form.

The ship started to rapidly gain altitude, lifting out into the Rattaki sky. The engines whined against the buzz of blaster bolts, but the shields held as they escaped the hail of lasers and into the violent maelstrom above. Both sides immediately honed in on their flight, the Seppies on the ground marking the Jedi's shuttle for the larger force. Rex cursed and held on as the first blasts rocked their ship, the closest vulture droids veering towards them, Republic starfighters hot on their tails. The center of the battle seemed to reform around them as ships twisted and dived on all sides, Cody doing his best to avoid fire and plunging ships. It still wasn't enough. The vulture droids were blocking the clone pilots, and the shields were already depleted from the hits they'd taken while grounded. With a final, whining, alarm, the shields went down. The next hit sent an engine smoking. 

Rex had to face the fact that they wouldn't make it. Friendlies were too far away to help, and they'd be shredded by blaster bolts long before they got there. No, if they wanted to get out of here, they needed to do something desperate. 

"Cody!" Rex had to shout over the battle din, "Could our engines make it to hyperspace?"

"What?!" Cody yelled, and sent the craft spinning through an impressive series of evasive maneuvers.

"Those clankers are gonna blast us apart! It's our only shot!" 

Cody hesitated, then drew his mouth in a firm line. "We could maybe do one jump! I'll get us in position, you set coordinates!" and he set to trying to find a path through the swarm.

After a few seconds of indecision, Rex punched in a string of coordinates that weren't too far away in wild space, and where they could contact the fleet after escaping. 

Meanwhile, Cody drove the ship headfirst through the enemy line. Startled vulture droids jerked out of the way- they hadn’t expected the shuttle to jet in the opposite direction of the fleet, much less charge directly towards them on a collision course. Self-preservation precepts engaged to jerk the droids out of the path of the barreling craft as it broke free of the seething chaos and soared up, piercing through the upper layers of the atmosphere.

Ahead, the line between breathable air and space loomed, beautiful despite the situation. “Get ready to hit that hyperdrive!” Cody yelled, still focused on his task, “We’re almost out of the gravity well!”

As Rex hovered his hand over the controls, several things happened in rapid succession. The ship passed through the atmospheric line and broke free of the gravity well, a parting shot from a lucky vulture droid burned through an engine, and the starship disappeared into hyperspace in a blink of light.

The two damaged engines, however, had an unpredictable effect. Out of control, the unstable engines accelerated rapidly through hyperspace, streaking the stars into flares, shooting the craft beyond the planned coordinates and into the furthest reaches of wild space. After a nerve wracking eternity, the damaged engines gave a final violent shudder, then jolted them out of hyperspace, coughed, and died.

\------------

The small craft drifted for hours in space. Out of Republic communications range, dead in the water, the small ship sent out a broad signal SOS. It echoed into nothingness, ringing out alone among the stars. Alone, that is, until a large, white, saucer disc topped starcraft dropped out of hyperspace in front of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to those of you who commented! What would be really useful would be to let me know if I need to spend more time rewriting and editing or actually focus on churning out content.
> 
> Have a nice day!


	5. First Contact

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aboard their powerless and drifting ship, Rex and Cody confront the small group of representatives from the USS Enterprise, trying their best to protect the wounded Jedi General they've just rescued.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I remember saying that I'd try and have updates within a week.
> 
> *Coughs a month later*
> 
> I'm so sorry for the delay, thanks so much to each and every one of you for the kudos that blew my wildest dreams and for the commentators that gave me encouragement and a case of the warm and fuzzies. I honestly did not expect it to take this long, but I now totally understand what writers say when they go "The chapter didn't want to be written" even though I've had this planned out for... quite a while. At some point I had to just tell myself to stop editing :/ but any spots I did miss, I do apologize for.
> 
> I expect that the whole writing process will take a while from now on (because I'm also lengthening chapters), so I'm extending the update period for a month or two, just to give myself some space. As I get more practice writing and really cement my own writing style, I think that updates will come faster, but unfortunately no guarantees.
> 
> That being said, I do think this piece was a bit more difficult, in fact it was quite fic-kle.  
> Get it? Get i-
> 
> Ok I know the way out.
> 
> Quick edit: I realized that I referenced a brown undertunic, and I found one that looks really cool and what I imagined it would look like (because there are no canon images of Obi-Wan in his undertunic so far) 
> 
> https://i.etsystatic.com/5320526/r/il/6659d3/1694456727/il_1588xN.1694456727_ampd.jpg

The foreign ship shuddered to a halt beside their craft, grinding to a stop with a squeal. 

Rex eyed Cody’s position next to the door- maybe they should have moved him farther back? When the door was opened, anyone on the other side would be right on top of him. A spare table wouldn’t be much cover. He shook the thought from his mind. Right or wrong decision, there was nothing they could do about it now. 

A loud banging resounded from the metal door, startling him from his thoughts. Rex deliberately kept his breathing even and steady, settling with the sort of forced calm he needed in a battlefield.

After a second, a masculine voice yelled... something through the door. Muffled as it was, Rex could tell that it was in another language, probably one native to the sector. It wasn't any language that Rex recognized, but Kamino had been producing soldiers, not polyglots, and he'd never picked up the interest in linguistics that other brothers had.

Rex and Cody kept their silence, and when he didn't receive a reply, the voice yelled a question through the door.

The boarding party didn’t sound hostile, but Rex knew how many people turned opportunistic when faced with the right price. Selling a Jedi and his complement of clone troopers to either side of the war would fetch a hefty price, and Rex had no desire to be haggled over like an antique tea set at an underworld auctioning block.

The tense quiet that hung over the room was suddenly pierced by the shrill beeping of the digital lock pad as it detected unauthorized usage. Rex and Cody hadn't truly tried to lock the system, only provide themselves with a warning and some time when their visitors arrived. After all, it wasn't a good ambush if the target couldn't even enter the trap in the first place. 

The problem was solved when someone, growing impatient with the lack of success, simply bashed the locking panel in with a loud crunch. Rex couldn't see the entrance from his position behind the propped up table, but he could hear the artificial hiss of the door release, undercut by the footsteps that entered the room. Rex inhaled for a second, then popped his top half above the table he'd been hiding behind, leveling his twin pistols at the boarding party. 

The first thing he noticed was the vibrant colored shirts the group was wearing. The blond man in the front was the only one wearing a bright gold (The leader, then. Convenient), the raven haired man behind him in a rich blue that matched another brown haired man. Bringing up the rear of the group was a woman with a ponytail in a practical red dress and two more men in bright red shirts. They all looked to be human, except for the black haired man, whose pointed ears singled him out from the crowd. They all also looked to be somewhat shocked, unexpectedly facing down the two twin barrels of his pistols.

The group froze, then Rex could see the woman and the black haired man reach towards their guns. 

In that instant Cody struck, erupting from his hiding place near them to neatly snag an arm around the blond leader's neck. Ignoring the startled shouts, Cody kicked the man's legs out from under him, then hauled the off balance body efficiently to Rex's position. In only a few seconds, Cody was next to Rex, blaster pressed against the hostage's temple. 

The natives had their guns up and leveled, but after a tense moment, the group slowly and carefully crouched down and put the weapons on the floor. It appeared they weren't willing to risk their gold-shirted friend. That was good. It’d make negotiating a lot easier.

The hostage himself twisted to meet Rex’s eyes with a highly offended look. His expression wasn’t frightened, more... supremely irritated, like he was saying “Kidnapping? Really? _Come on_.”

Reminded him a little of his Generals, to be honest. Still, Rex needed to remember that these people would turn them over to the Seppies as soon as they smelled money.

Rex lowered his guns a tad, but kept them up. Cody's barrel remained against the leader’s head, who continued to look affronted by the rough treatment. (Brave? Ridiculous? Both?). 

Cody spoke, keeping his voice stern and commanding. “We don’t want any trouble. We’re only running an escort mission, nothing more. All we need is a ship, medical supplies, and a star chart. We’ll trade you back your leader, and I’m sure some form of compensation for your trouble can be worked out later.”

The members of the party looked at him, then at each other. Their hostage squinted blue eyes at Rex, with an expression that clearly said "What?" 

The woman with the pony tail stepped up confidently (The man's second in command?) and asked a question, but it was in the same unknown language as before. Rex could imagine it was something along the lines of "Do you speak ---?"

Great. They didn't understand Basic. Well, that just made the diplomatic process a whole lot harder. Watching their expressions, she switched to a new language and repeated the question. Nothing. She tried a few more languages, but none of them matched the common dialects that he and Cody knew. 

After a couple minutes of this, Rex tamped down a surge of frustration. They were getting nowhere. The longer they took, the worse it was for General Kenobi, who was running on borrowed time already. They didn’t sneak through enemy lines, dodge through a massive space battle, and survive hyperspace with a malfunctioning engine to be defeated by a linguistic barrier.

Rex shook his head and turned to Cody, ready to ask for a piece of flimsi and a stylus if need be, when something caught his eye. Every single one of their bright shirted friends, except the leader, had fixated on a spot behind Rex and Cody. Even the spokeswoman had cut off mid-sentence and was staring past him, to the... cockpit. 

He closed his eyes briefly. _He hadn’t._ There was a slight scuffle behind Rex. 

He had.

Resigned, Rex turned his head, and there, leaning against the doorway, was one  
General Kenobi in all his disheveled glory. There was a slightly muddled glaze over his eyes, and he looked a little like a bantha calf dropped in the second battle of Geonosis. Small, bedraggled, highly confused, and a little pathetic.

Not that Rex would ever tell the General that.

He _would_ tell General Skywalker that his fool Master had decided stumbling around on severe injuries was a good idea. 

Rex's exasperation dissipated with a heavy sigh when he saw how the General carefully avoided putting weight on his bad leg. As usual, the Jedi ran around trying to help others and neglecting themselves, and the Clones were left to run damage control. The only thing they could do now was to get him to rest again, and hope that this far out from the core the locals hadn't picked up enough holonet broadcasts to recognize the General's face. Rex glanced over to check on the natives, and the Force must have been with them, because the small crew looked shocked, but more "A dirty, wounded person just stumbled in" and less "It's a famous war hero!"

Cody was still keeping his eyes trained on the party, not daring to take his gaze off in case someone would try something when his back was turned. Rex coughed awkwardly, not sure how to best inform him of the situation he couldn't see. "Cody," he began, "It looks like the General's woken up from his nap." He wasn't worried about the potential identifier, it wasn't like the natives could understand him.

Cody instantly let out a heartfelt groan, and Rex honestly wondered if he was contemplating trying to do the equivalent of a face palm with a gun. Cody shifted and angrily hissed, "Sir, not that we're not glad to see you up, but _could you stay put for once_?" Rex was inclined to agree. 

When there was no sassy reply from behind him, Rex felt a flare of concern. 

He turned back and faced the General fully, holstering his pistols after a quick debate. Cody had their leverage pinned down (and his friends by extension), and Rex had no idea what mental state the General was in. The last thing he remembered was probably the dark cell they'd found him in, anyone would be distressed after that.

Rex kept his hands low and visible, slowly approaching like he would a wounded animal. "General Kenobi, you're not in that cell anymore. We broke you out."

"Rex?" The General's voice cracked a little with disuse, and his eyes were feverish and disoriented. He was firmly in the grip of infection, and Rex inwardly cursed the linguistic barrier. If they only had had a translator droid, they could have gotten bacta and antibiotics, and maybe even a med droid, and been well on their way coreward already. Instead, they were risking his discovery and health because of a karking _language difference_. He pushed down another surge of intense frustration with some difficulty.

"Yes Sir," he replied smoothly, "It's me." Ignoring the group behind him, he slowly reached up and took off his bucket, feeling a brush of cool air against his face as he calmly clipped it to his belt.

The General took him in, running his eyes over the blond buzz cut and blue armor,  
and then waved a taped hand that hung near his side.

Immediately, there was a sudden pressure in Rex’s head, and while an observer might have marked it down as a casual movement, Rex knew the gesture had been the General using the Force. The pressure intensified for a moment, pounding in sharp heartbeats at his temples and behind his ears in spikes, and then peaked sharply and became near blinding for a second before dying down, leaving him with a throbbing headache and the _wish that a Jedi would warn somebody before doing that_.

Rex didn't think their visitors had noticed him falter, but he didn't have time to worry about it, because whatever _that_ was, it had drained the General of the energy he didn't have. His dull grey eyes had been completely leeched of their blue, and his normally pale complexion was an unhealthy white. The florescent lights lent the sweat on his skin a sickly sheen, and he staggered a bit, bracing himself against the wall with uncharacteristically slumped posture. Rex frowned and stepped forward to assist, but then forcibly halted himself before he could crowd the General. 

"Sir, we're trying to get you back to the Temple, but we need you to stay put and out of sight. These people don't know you're a Jedi-" Rex cut himself off as the General spoke up weakly.

"Well, they do now."

 _What?_

"What? Sir-" Rex was cut off a second time when the General’s eyes rolled back and he swayed, listing heavily to the side. "Sir-!" Rex sprinted forward just in time to catch the General as he collapsed, shoving his arms under him and slowing his fall. He carefully lowered the limp body to the ground, gently laying the auburn head down on the floor. He quickly ran his fingers over the pulse point and felt a wave of relief wash over him when there was a light flutter, holding steady.

 _Kriffing stupid Jedi with his kriffing stupid Force Osik_. Rex reached out and gently shook his shoulder, but there was no response from the Jedi. If Rex listened closely, he could make out a series of painful, rattling, fluid filled wheezes. Of course the idiot managed to make himself worse when there was a complete lack of medical supplies. “Force _dammit_ Sir!” 

Cody spoke up, voice tight, “Sitrep, Rex.” Cody still hadn't turned around, keeping his eyes sharp for potential threats. It must have been alarming to hear, and knowing Cody, he had already drawn the worst conclusions. 

Rex sighed, “He’s unconscious again- and he managed to make himself worse. Cody, if we can’t get him to a doctor, and soon..."

"Karking di'kut Jedi," Cody's concerned tone did not match his harsh words, "At this point, I'd settle for a fully stocked field kit," his voice hardened, "I don't care how we do it, we get these people to understand that we want medical help."

Rex nodded, refocusing his attention on the group standing by the entrance of the craft, looking highly startled and a little puzzled. Great, they probably thought that Rex and Cody waltzed around the galaxy mugging people, with the occasional kidnapping for funsies. 

Rex’s train of thought derailed abruptly when the hostage spoke up. “How the hell do you guys now know Federation Standard? And what the hell is a Jed- urk!” Cody had tightened the choke hold around his neck, cutting him off mid-sentence.

 _What?_

But while his mind had blanked out, instincts had him moving the second he heard “Jedi". He scooped up the General and, mentally apologizing for the rough treatment, hauled him back into the relative safety of the cockpit. Right behind him was Cody, who dragged the throttled captive back that was currently serving as a meat shield between them and the enemy. 

Rex quickly let the General slump to the ground, then redrew his pistols to backup Cody, who shot a warning glare to the hostiles and threateningly nudged his blaster into the side of the captive’s head. The group was protesting loudly now, and Rex noted absentmindedly that they now spoke Basic as well.

"Let Kirk go!"

"What the-"

"Stand down!"

"Cease your-"

Cody effectively silenced the uproar by readjusting the gun firmly pressed to the man's temple. Who... looked more pissed off than anything.

In the new silence, the blue-eyed man made a few pointed gagging noises and gestured to his throat. With a warning glare, Cody acquiesced after a second and loosened his choke hold enough for the man to talk. He coughed a few times, and raised a hand to rub his throat before glancing at Cody and thinking better of it.

"I was just asking! Geez, you guys are touchy.”

The disbelief that Rex had deferred with adrenaline came back to hit him full force. 

_What the hell?_ How did they suddenly know Basic? Were these people faking unawareness before? No, their reaction to the threatened leader had been genuine. It was insane, they had gone from complete and total incomprehension to the fluency of a native speaker. It was like someone... had flipped a switch...

With the action that had come after, Rex hadn't thought too much about the General's Force use. If asked in the moment, he would've said that he vaguely thought it had to do with verifying Rex's identity. Checking to make sure he was who he said he was by poking around his surface thoughts and intentions. Right before the General had used the Force however, Rex had been vehemently cursing the language differences. Thinking back, he'd probably been what the Generals called "Broadcasting". Particularly strong emotions could lead to accidental shield slippage, leaking into the surrounding Force. 

The delirious, well-meaning idiot always tried to help where he could. It was a part of his character the way the water was part of Kamino's seas. It would be just like him to sense that something was wrong and do his best to fix it. In this case, the thing that needed fixing was the Clones' inability to understand the language, and not something like... oh, a critical health problem or two.

Rex nobly resisted the urge to repeatedly bang his head on the spaceship's hull.

“Try anything and I’ll blow your brains out.” Cody snapped, bringing Rex's attention back to the present. 

“Woah!” The man turned to look distinctly alarmed, and Rex got the impression that he’d stick his hands up if Cody let him. “Look, I don’t even know what a J-“ he paused. “What that means.”

“And why should we believe you?” Cody snarled. The man opened his mouth once or twice, but it was clear he didn't know what to say. To be fair to the captive, it was a difficult thing to prove.

On the other hand, Rex was with Cody on this. It was impossible not to know what a Jedi was. Even the most isolated of townsfolk had heard about them. The Jedi were an ancient order that went back thousands of years, and plenty of cultures had individual mythology about them. 

Most likely, these people had a different name for the Order other than "Jedi" and as soon as someone referenced anything about who the General was, then the game was up, and these people realized they had a valuable prize hiding in plain sight. 

"Look," Cody said after a moment, "Give us medical treatment, a ship with a hyperdrive, don't breath a word about," he gestured towards the cockpit, " any of this, and you can forget we ever met."

The hostage tried to crane his neck towards the cockpit, but stopped when Cody cleared his throat. "Your buddy's in pretty bad shape, huh? I mean, why didn't you guys just ask for help in the first place?" The words were innocuous enough, but there was a glint of sharp intelligence in his eyes that Rex suspected meant that there was more to the man than a first glance would tell you.

"None of your business." Cody growled. 

"Alright, alright, sheesh. I can take a hint. Bones?" he asked, looking towards the brown haired man. 'Bones' stepped up, looking none too happy with the situation. "It just so happens I brought my CMO with me. He gets your guy checked out and you release me, capeesh?"

The grumpy looking doctor didn't wait for an answer, cutting in with a glare and a sour twang. "What're his injuries? I only brought a portable kit, so don't expect any miracles." 

Rex's first instinct was to conceal any weaknesses, you just didn't show vulnerabilities to people who could exploit them. This wasn't just true on the battlefield but also, Rex had learned, in diplomatic situations. Give someone an inch and they'd take a parsec. On the other hand, concealing injuries from medics when they were trying to treat you defeated the purpose of a medic in the first place.

Rex spoke up before he could change his mind, "Some bad scrapes, broken fingers, possible broken leg, infected laceration in his right side, and possible other stuff we don't know about."

The man's frown deepened, "Sounds nasty, but not the worst I've ever seen," and he stepped forward, reaching for the black pouch at his side. Cody twitched and Rex raised his blasters again automatically. Bones froze in his tracks and raised a dry eyebrow, "Unless one of you lovely gentlemen wants to blow my head off?"

"Please don't blow my CMO's head off," interjected the captive, "I wouldn't want to fire the paperwork."

"Aw, Jim. You know you love me." He replied, then looked at them again, "But I can't exactly treat your pal without a brain, even if this idiot," he nodded at Jim, "Makes you believe it's possible to walk and talk without one."

"Hey!"

"So what's it gonna be?"

Cody and Rex shifted. Rex knew that this was what they wanted in the first place, but it didn't feel right to let someone so close to the general when he was injured and unconscious. After a second, Cody decided for them by shifting enough to allow him to pass. Rex followed Cody's lead and watched the doctor warily as he walked by.

As Bones stepped past him, Rex reached out and snagged his sleeve, “You lay a hand on him I don’t like, and neither you nor your friend gets out of here alive,” he growled lowly.

Bones yanked himself out of his grip and dusted himself off. “Yeah, I kinda got that from the guns pointed at our heads. Don’t worry, I took a proper Hippocratic oath and everything," he snorted and brushed past him to get to his patient.

The General had been hastily laid on the cold metal decking of the ship, in the chaos Rex hadn’t thought of arranging him on the cot they’d set up earlier. His identifying bracers had been removed and wrapped in his tattered overtunics, the bundle which had been tucked away under the cot. His lightsaber was kept safe in a specially designed pouch on Cody’s utility belt. 

Rex examined the Jedi with a critical eye. The finger splints that Kix had done were visible, but the most serious injury was wrapped and stuffed with bacta patches under the brown undertunic. Instead of Bones pulling up the shirt to examine the bandage like Rex had expected, the man knelt down next to his patient and pulled out a small, cylindrical device from his pack. He moved it up and down the General's body with business like efficiency, occasionally checking a 'pad in his other hand. After a few rounds of this he attached the scanner back to the pad and looked up at Rex.

"Well, the good news is that the scrapes on his wrists and ankles should heal up fine, and the broken fingers should heal up with proper treatment. It'll require surgery, but he'll be able to play the piano again."

"The what?"

"Never mind," the doctor snorted, "Just a phrase. His bad leg isn't broken, but it does have several hairline fractures on it. If the femur wasn't the strongest human bone... well. Let's just say it wouldn't be pretty." Rex winced. As bad as one break was, several breaks were worse.

Bones continued professionally, "The gash on his right side wasn't deep enough to reach his internal organs, and it should heal if the infection is taken care of. Unfortunately, that's the bad news. As far as I can tell, the infection wasn't taken care of for... quite a while. It's had time to fester, enough that he's gone septic. He hasn't gone into shock," he said quickly, noticing Rex's expression, "but there's bacteria in his bloodstream that's gonna need several rounds of antibiotic therapy and minor surgery to remove some of the more diseased tissue." 

Bones pushed himself out of his crouch and looked him in the eye. "Now here's the part you're not gonna like. He needs advanced care, and now. That means, he's getting treated on our ship."

Rex stiffened. " _Absolutely not_."

Bones straightened up, "Look-"

Rex cut him off again. "We're supposed to just trust your word and bring him onto your ship? That's more than a little suspicious when you could just give us the equipment. If you'd let us use your comm, I'm sure the Republic will wire you whatever funds you want."

"It’s not about the funds, you wouldn't know how to use it!" Bones voice was growing steadily annoyed, "You think you can just wave a tricorder around and bypass years of medical school? He needs surgery and intensive care, not a couple hypos and a good night's sleep!"

"Where's your karking med droid then?" Rex retorted, "And what eon are you living in that you don't have portable bacta tanks on a ship that size?"

"A what now?" Bones scowled deeply, "Look, whatever fancy new-age stuff you guys tote around, we don't have it. You're stuck with the basics, and he needs those basics _now_. Quite frankly, it's a damn miracle that he stumbled about earlier, at this point, anyone else just wouldn't wake up!"

 _True, but,_ “Like hell we’re just going to hand him over to you!” Rex snarled back.

Bones blew out a frustrated sigh and massaged his temples with his hands, before looking up at him. There was something approaching sympathy in his eyes. “I’m a doctor. I know what these types of wounds are from. I don’t know what your merry band of degenerates is running from, but I do know this: we aren’t those people. And if you can’t trust that, trust this. If you don’t give him to us, to treat, then he’s going to die, and quick."

Rex grit his teeth. They had two options: Trust that they weren't handing him over to be tortured or sold for ransom, or have the General die in front of them because they didn't get him treated in time. Rex didn't know which one he'd pick, but... "It's not my choice to make."

He shifted to include the door frame in his line of sight. "Cody," he began.

"I heard." Came the terse reply. Of course he had, it was a cramped area.

Rex didn't envy the choice his brother had to make. Looked at clinically, refusing the offer was the best course of action. Dying here, on the shuttle, was preferable to being handed over to the Seppies, where he'd eventually break under continued torture and then die a painful death anyways.

But although Rex could see the cold logic in the plan, he didn't think he was strong enough to sit there with Cody and listen to the General's final breaths and know that he was responsible. For all that his brother was a commander and used to sacrificing for the greater good, he didn't think he was either.

Cody's tone, when he spoke, was resigned. “Could he make it?” 

“No,” Rex said quietly. “He's telling the truth.”

It appeared that Rex had been right about his brother, because with a sigh and a muttered “goddammit,” Cody dropped the gun and unhooked his other arm from around the captive’s neck, giving him a brisk push towards the other side of the room. 

The blond stumbled a few steps and then turned and looked at them, rubbing his throat from where Cody’s arm had held it. “Wait, that’s it? You’re just gonna let me go?”

“Well,” Cody said dryly, “I think it’d be a bit difficult to try and hold you hostage on your own ship.” 

"Yeah, no kidding." The man said, confused, as his teammates pulled him back. "Well," he said briskly, attempting to roll with it, "If it was anybody else, they'd be shooting first and asking questions later. Luckily for you, I happen to believe in due process, even when I happen to be threatened and held hostage. So _he_ will get treatment, while _you_ wait out our ride to the nearest Federation outpost in a nice, comfy cell."

Rex was none too happy about being kept separate from the General, but it was probably the best they could hope to get in the current situation, as an attacking party wasn't usually allowed free roam of a ship. 

This didn't matter if he could contact the Republic, because then they were home free. Even if this was a neutral system, the Republic was simply too powerful a government, one that ruled most of the known galaxy, to bow to the whims of the smaller government. It might take the form of diplomacy, bribery, or strong arming, but the Senate, as in many other things, would have it's way. 

Hopefully, the system government would appease the Republic to avoid being dragged into the war. From what Rex had heard, these people kept to themselves, and they'd probably like to keep it that way.

Cody nodded, and Rex could tell that he liked the situation about as much as Rex did, but he gave a begrudging "Understood." Then he leaned down, placed his gun on the ground, and with a note of finality kicked it towards them. Rex followed his lead, even though there was something in him that screamed wrongness at kicking his weapons away and out of reach. 

The gold shirted man put a foot on the still spinning gun, stopping it before he picked it up. He turned it over a few times, eyeing the barrel that had been so instrumental in that first, fraught introduction.

"Well, gentlemen," he said, looking up, "It looks like we have a deal. Welcome aboard the USS Enterprise."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe next time we'll get a chapter where the main characters learn each others names after nearly 5k worth of a meeting.
> 
> Guys, thanks so much again for just... everything, and I hope you have a nice day!


End file.
